'Every football fan must have experienced an exploding football stadium!'

As a real football fan, you will obviously be in South-Africa this summer!

‘As football fan, I definitely think you must have experienced at least one World Cup. I have done so. Of course I thought about going to South-Africa this summer, but there are a few reasons not to go.’ 
 

And those are?

‘Firstly, it is difficult because I teach. I cannot leave for a couple of weeks just like that. Secondly, it seems to be very expensive. And you cannot escape from it: safety does play a big role. I know, as teacher in marketing, that the organization does everything to appear safe, but you cannot deny the rate of murders (19.000 a year) in South-Africa!’

How did you become such a great football fan?

‘As a little child I went to see football games, with my dad. I went to the European Cup in Germany, in 1988 together with my parents. We had a terrace place for fifteen Dutch guilders. There I saw the match Holland-Ireland, and how Wim Kieft seven minutes before the end of the game, in a full stadium, caused Holland to go to the next round. That is a fantastic memory. I have always played football myself, I had a seasonal ticket of the team N.E.C for years and visited many matches of the Dutch Team.

Did you play football yourself on a high level?

‘At the moment, I play in the reserve team of Kolping-Dynamo and a while ago I played in the first team. I also played in the fourth team in the past. But at the moment it is all about fun and sociability. I like to run, fly and hope for victory for one hour and a half on Sunday morning in the in the fields. We finished second for four years in a row, so we experience some kind of ‘Adri van der Poel’- complex. I am still very fanatical, though. I can be really fed up when we lose. Normally, I score a lot of goals, but last season the production halted a bit. I am afraid I won’t be selected for the National Team anymore, haha’.

You told you already witnessed a World Cup as a supporter. Do tell!

‘I went to the World Cup in Germany in 2006, together with a couple of friends. We were warned in advance that tickets were extremely expensive if you bought them at the black market. We made a board with ‘tickets wanted’, just before the match Holland-Serbia, and gave it a chance. Eventually, I negotiated with a black marketeer somewhere in the bushes, and I tagged out six hundred Euros for three tickets. Then, we had to get round three control points, because passport and ticket were linked together. We succeeded and we saw how Robben scored the winning goal. You really must have experienced it once; the exploding stadium.

And then? Party?

Normally, I am very down-to-earth but then I also got caught by the exalted atmosphere. I am not that kind of person who jumps on the back of his neighbours, but I am very happy though. However, if Holland reaches the finale this year, it is quite possible that I show strange behaviour. But I can also get really pissed off with a wrong decision of the referee. I can really start to my feet!

This year you will be sitting on the coach with a glass of coke, watching the matches?

‘Watching football is most fun when you do it with your friends in the pub. I often go to the pub ‘Het Haantje’ in Nijmegen to watch. We come together one hour and a half before the game starts, to get a good place in the café. After the match, the conviviality went on because the Dutch Team won, or we go home with an unpleasant feeling because we lost. I had this feeling during the European Cup in 2000 when Holland missed five penalties against Italy. I felt uprooted all day long because it was over. It was a pity. A finale without Holland I will watch at home on the coach with a glass of coke.’

What do you think about the chances of the Dutch Team?

‘In Holland we got the feeling that we will be champion when we only won three matches, just like two years ago during the European Cup in Switzerland and Austria. I had also planned my weekend free for the finales, but we all remember the match against Russia. Left at the post, we lost it…But I think national coach Van Marwijk can reduce the pressure a bit and further we will need to be a bit lucky with the appointment by lot and injuries. This team is better than it was four years ago. The most important boys are now aged so that they can play at their tops and be at their tops. As long as we don’t get Brazil, Italy and Spain in one row, we will reach it to the final four!’

The ideal team according to Jeffrey:
Goal: Stekelenburg. Defence: Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Anita.
Midfield players: Van Bommel, Sneijder, Van der Vaart.
Attack: Robben, van Persie, Kuijt.